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The game features gameplay largely reminiscent of its predecessor, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, with the "Investigation", "Logic" and "Confrontation" modes returning.[1] A new element involves "Chess Logic". During conversations with certain characters, the player must find a weakness in the conversation within a limited amount of time. The player is given two choices of dialogue. At times one of these pieces will show a chess piece; the player, if they believe they have an advantage in the conversation over the other character, can select the chess piece option. If the player does not yet have the advantage, they will lose some of the time meter, and will have to continue asking other probing questions in order to further build up their advantage. However, if the player does have an advantage, as represented by the relative strength of the chess pieces shown, they will succeed in overthrowing the character's conversation and progress in the game.[3][4]

Gyakuten Kenji 2 features the same three main characters from its predecessor: prosecutor Miles Edgeworth; detective Dick Gumshoe; and Kay Faraday, a teenage girl who is also an avid thief. One case of the game takes place at Gourd Lake, a setting from the first game of the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.[5] The character of Shelly de Killer from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All returns. A new female judge, named Hakari Mikagami, is introduced and serves as Edgeworth's rival in this game; character designer Tatsurou Iwamoto wanted to create an older woman he could look up to.[6] Mikagami is part of a "Prosecutor Purge", following the actions of weaker prosecutors to justify removing them from duty.[7]

The game's first case, Turnabout Target opens with an assassination attempt on Teikun Ō, the visiting president of Zheng Fa; the president survives the attempt, but his head bodyguard, Gai Tojiro is apparently killed in his place. Edgeworth is called in to investigate, aided by Kay and Gumshoe, and quickly suspects an individual who turns out to be the infamous assassin Shelly de Killer, previously encountered by Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice For All. de Killer denies having made the assassination attempt, but admits to a separate attempt several days previous, during which he injured Tojiro's second-in-command Manosuke Naitō, who he then takes hostage in order to force the president to let Edgeworth investigate. Subsequently, de Killer vanishes and the president attempts to indict a local reporter, Mikiko Hayami of the murder. Edgeworth disproves his allegations, and it subsequently turns out that Naitō is the actual killer, having murdered his superior in order to take over as the president's head bodyguard. He is arrested as the president departs.

The second case, The Imprisoned Turnabout sees Edgeworth assigned to prosecute Naitō, but on the eve of his trial, Naitō is found dead in the local prison. Sōta Sarushiro, an employee of the Berry Big Circus (which also previously appeared in Justice for All, although Sarushiro did not) and longtime friend of Naitō is suspected of the murder, but Edgeworth's attempt to investigate is stymied when Judge Mikagami shows up and assigns Yumihiko Ichiyanagi, a young and egotistical but blatantly incompetent prosecutor, to the case in Edgeworth's place. To investigate, Edgeworth is forced to team up with Tateyuki Shigaraki, a defense attorney and former protege of Miles's late father Gregory Edgeworth. Though suspicion falls on several other inmates, including Frank Sahwit (the series' first-ever murderer), former boxer Shūji Orinaka and blind assassin Ryōken Hōinbō, it turns out that the prison warden, Marī Miwa murdered Naitō in the belief that Hōinbō—who had been coercing her and threatening her life for years—had been the employer of Naitō. Though the case is resolved and Sarushiro is freed, Judge Mikagami warns Edgeworth that he is under investigation, and that any infraction will most likely see him stripped of his prosecutor's badge.

The third case, The Inherited Turnabout takes place in two different time periods, separated by 18 years. In the past segment, the player controls Gregory Edgeworth (Miles Edgeworth's father), who is accompanied by a young Shigaraki, and is called to defend famous chef Issei Tenkai from the charge of murdering fellow chef Isaku Hyōdō. The other suspects include Tenkai's assistant and adoptive daughter Tsukasa Oyashiki, and fellow chefs Delicy Scone and Yutaka Kazami. Ultimately, neither Gregory nor the assigned prosecutor, Manfred von Karma, are able to make much progress in the investigation, because the body has gone missing. However, von Karma is able to threaten and coerce Tenkai into falsely confessing to being an accomplice to murder, and Tenkai receives a life sentence. Gregory's only victory is getting von Karma a penalty for attempting to conceal the disappearance of the body, which so enrages von Karma that it later provokes him into murdering Gregory (as previously seen in the series' first game). In the present-day segment of the case, Miles Edgeworth and Shigaraki arrive at Tenkai's former home, which has become an art gallery run by the now adult Oyashiki. Shortly after arrival they witness an older Kazami nearly be gassed to death by a trap, and Ichiyanagi is again assigned to prosecute under Judge Mikagami's direction, with Edgeworth this time investigating as a witness. Edgeworth concludes that Oyashiki was responsible for both the murder 18 years ago and the attempt on Kazami's life, but when questioned, she admits to the latter crime, but not Hyōdō's murder, which she accuses Kazami of being responsible for. The recovered Kazami then arrives and after questioning, gleefully admits to murdering Hyōdō, who he had conspired with to cheat in a cookery contest, but had then been betrayed by at the last minute. Kazami claims that he cannot be charged, since the 15 year statute of limitations for him to be arrested has passed, but Edgeworth and Shigaraki are able to use legal loopholes to prove that Kazami can still be prosecuted; consequently Kazami and Oyashiki are both jailed (though it's implied that the latter has enough mitigating circumstances that she will only serve a light sentence), while Tenkai is released.

In the fourth case, The Forgotten Turnabout, a badly injured and amnesic Kay is brought to Edgeworth, and is accused of murdering defense attorney Tsubasa Kagome. Edgeworth attempts to investigate, but before he can do much is brought up before the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee, which threatens to strip him of his badge unless he agrees not to be involved in Kay's case; however, Edgeworth voluntarily gives up his badge and continues to investigate as an aide to Manfred von Karma's daughter, Franziska von Karma. Edgeworth discovers that someone has been auctioning off evidence from legal cases, and finds a tape recording indicating that Kagome's murderer had a burn mark on his or her chin; however, Edgeworth is then arrested on false charges of trying to help Kay escape. While in the same prison he had investigated several days previous, Edgeworth comes to suspect Bansai Ichiyanagi, the head of the investigation committee and Yumihiko's father, of being the actual murderer. Edgeworth is called to defend himself against the committee, and to his surprise Judge Mikagami suddenly turns on Bansai, who she reveals is not only the person auctioning off evidence, but was responsible for years of massive legal corruption in his former position as Chief Prosecutor, and even forced Manfred von Karma to prosecute Issei Tenkai despite von Karma being unconvinced of his guilt. Edgeworth fools Bansai into setting fire to his fake beard, revealing the burn mark that identifies him as Kagome's murderer, and Bansai is taken into custody. Kay recovers her memory, and though Edgeworth deduces that someone attacked her, she still can't remember who it was. Shelly de Killer gives a call from a transceiver (perhaps the same one he used in his his last known assassination) to Edgeworth, remarking that although Bansai has been discovered and arrested, the case does not yet seem to be fully solved.

The fifth and final case, The Grand Turnabout begins within an hour (and perhaps less than) of the previous case, with Teikun Ō suddenly turning up dead in mysterious circumstances. Edgeworth finally re-encounters Shi-Long Lang here, who has lost his subordinate team of 100 men due to his mishandling of the investigation into the smuggling ring (detailed in the previous game). Before Edgeworth can investigate too far in, he gets involved with Marī Miwa's trial; Yumihiko Ichiyanagi was due to prosecute, but fails to show up, and upon being questioned by Edgeworth, Mikagami admits that Bansai Ichiyanagi is coercing her into acquitting Miwa and to that end has abducted her adoptive son, Shimon Aizawa. When Edgeworth tries to rescue Shimon however, he finds out that Bansai's henchmen bungled the job and actually abducted Yumihiko, who helps recover incriminating evidence that his father attempted to destroy, while Kay and Gumshoe rescue Aizawa, who was abducted by a third party. Miwa is convicted, and Bansai's own crimes further established, but no sooner has that trial ended that Shi-Long Lang announces that Judge Mikagami and/or her son is responsible for Teikun Ō's murder. Edgeworth is again forced to investigate, and discovers that Aizawa is the son of the deceased president, who it further turns out actually died twelve years prior; the "Teikun Ō" seen during the game was an imposter, who had Ryōken Hōinbō kill the real president, and then covered up his crime with the help of Miwa and Bansai Ichiyanagi. During the investigation Edgeworth is contacted by someone who claims credit for kidknapping Aizawa and assaulting Kay during the previous case, and all involved are shocked when this person is eventually discovered to be Sōta Sarushiro. Edgeworth and the assembled law enforcers confront Sarushiro at the Berry Big Circus, and he indicates that he manipulated Miwa into killing Naitō, and Bansai Ichiyanagi into killing Kagome,as Sarushiro, as a child, witnessed the real Teikun Ō's death, causing the criminals to try and eliminate him. It also transpires that Sarushiro is Kazami's long lost son who was taken from him by Hyodo to prevent Kazami from winning and forced his own son, Naito, to dispose of him, only for them to get trapped in a car, the trauma of which cost them their memories, hence why he had him killed. Hoinbo found them and brought Sarushiro to an orphanage, where he witnessed the killing. However, he claims that he committed no actual crime himself. In the end, Edgeworth proves that Sarushiro hired Shelly de Killer to try and kill the fake president, who he actually ended up killing himself by landing a hot air balloon on top of. Suddenly, Shelly de Killer shows up and is about to slash open Sarushiro's throat (for Sarushiro lied to de Killer about the identity of the president, which endangered de Killer); suddenly, Ryōken Hōinbō (who escaped prison 3 days prior) intervenes and crosses blades with de Killer. The two assassins converse, and de Killer relents (seeing no merit in a fight to the death). As de Killer flees, Shimon calls out Hōinbo as the man who killed his dad, and is about to murder him; Shimon then sees that such an action would be only satisfying to him, and would cause his mother more pain, and relents. As Hōinbō is arrested, Sarushiro is imprisoned, and Edgeworth is restored to his prosecutor's position.

Gyakuten Kenji 2 was first revealed in Famitsu in early September 2010, followed by an official announcement from Capcom. The game was part of Capcom's showcase at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show.[8] The game was released with two special bundles in Japan, an Extended Edition with a Miles Edgeworth figurine and a Limited Edition which also includes a promotional DVD and an orchestral soundtrack.[9]

In March 2011, Capcom's Christian Svensson stated that there were no plans at the time to release Gyakuten Kenji 2 in regions outside of Japan.[10] In an interview with Siliconera in December 2011, Svensson stated that the potential for a downloadable, digital release of Gyakuten Kenji 2 exists, but that he couldn't say that it definitely would happen, and that "conversations are ongoing internally about how to address the audience that’s clamoring for more [Ace Attorney] goodness".[11]

In January 2012, in a live "questions and answers" video, Svensson again said that he had not given up on trying to get Gyakuten Kenji 2 released in the West, that conversations remained ongoing, and that he was "cautiously optimistic that some day, that content will exist in the West in some form."[12] In March 2012, he once again said that an English release of the game was "an open discussion point", and that he hoped that "the fans are still patient with us".[13]

In September 2012, when asked if high sales of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney HD Trilogy and the upcoming Nintendo 3DS title Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies would help sway a decision about localizing Gyakuten Kenji 2, Christian Svensson said that the game "isn’t being held hostage so please don’t read this that way but if they do well, they certainly can’t hurt".[16] He also added that the sales forecasts for Dual Destinies were high compared to how well previous entries in the series had done commercially, which was necessary in order to get it released in the West.[16]

In January 2013, Svensson was again asked about if there had been any progress made on getting Gyakuten Kenji 2 localized, and he responded that while it still comes up in conversation, there were no news to report, and that all Ace Attorney resources, especially localization ones, were focused on Dual Destinies.[17] Whilst it was widely assumed that Gyakuten Kenji 2 wasn't localized due to poor sales of the franchise, producer Motohide Eshiro has stated "The main reason was just scheduling... Also, the staff for Ace Attorney Investigations 2—after they finished developing the game, they were disbanded and went to different teams, so they weren't in a position to localize."[18]

A fan translation of Gyakuten Kenji 2, titled Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth: Prosecutor's Path, has been developed.[19] In October 2012, footage was posted online showing the intro to the game's first case, "Turnabout Target", translated into English.[20] The translation patch of the first case was initially announced for a January 2013 release, however, due to extensive de-bugging and work on translating the second case, the release date was put on hold. In July 2013, it was announced that the first beta patch containing a full English translation of Case 1 and 2 would be slated for release by the end of summer.[21] The first patch was finally released on September 16, 2013.[22] An updated patch including a translation of the third case was released on March 8, 2014. A further beta patch was released on June 15, 2014, which translated all five cases.[23]

^Christian Svensson (2012). Devil May Cry 2 (Pt. 2). Event occurs at 4:27. Retrieved 2012-02-05. Ace Attorney Investigations 2... I have not given up on trying to get that westward. I won't say how or when, I'll just say that conversations remain ongoing. I won't talk about platforms, I won't talk about anything other than that, but do not give up hope. I'm still pushing very hard, and I'm cautiously optimistic that some day, that content will exist in the West in some form.

^Christian Svensson (January 14, 2013). "What's going on with AAI2?". Capcom. Retrieved January 15, 2013. It still comes up in conversation but unfortunately there is no new news on progress I can report. All AA resources (especially localization resources) are squarely on AA5 at the moment.